Guarding His Flock Ministries

Does saying “breath prayers” make us God’s “best friends”?

“Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17, KJV

To direct people on a spiritual journey for 40 days, Rick Warren wrote The Purpose Driven Life. The bestselling book has impacted millions of persons. Some of Pastor Warren’s purpose involves recommendations for “Becoming Best Friends with God.” To become God’s friends, the author shares six secrets, one of which is practicing God’s presence by being in “constant conversation” with him. After quoting 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (“pray without ceasing“), Warren asks how a Christian can practice unceasing prayer to which he answers:

One way is to use “breath prayers” throughout the day, as many Christians have done for centuries. You choose a brief sentence or a simple phrase that can be repeated in one breath. [1]

Then after providing ten examples of short biblical phrases that could work as breath prayers, Warren advises “Pray it as often as possible so it is rooted deep in your heart.”[1] In this context, Warren also cites the book of Brother Lawrence (c.1605-1691), The Practice of the Presence of God, who advocated experiencing God’s presence in the most menial of circumstances by praying short conversational prayers throughout the day. The Roman Catholic practice of praying the rosary is akin to breath prayers.
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Contemplative prayer and “the Elijah experience” of 1 Kings 19:12.

And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. 1 Kings 19:11-12, KJV

Elijah’s Mt. Horeb experience, when he heard “a sound of sheer silence” (1 Kings 19:12, NRSV), stimulated in the church a tradition of desert spirituality which pursues solitude in order to experience the divine presence and hear God speak. [1] Practitioners of lectio divina (i.e., reading sacred things) also desire such encounters. They say:

When we read the Scriptures we should try to imitate the prophet Elijah. We should allow ourselves to become women and men who are able to listen for the still, small voice of God (I Kings 19:12); the “faint murmuring sound” which is God’s word for us, God’s voice touching our hearts. This gentle listening is an “atunement” to the presence of God . . . [2]

About Elijah’s experience of hearing God’s “still small voice” (KJV, NKJV), questions arise. Does 1 Kings 19:12 endorse contemplative spirituality? Was the prophet’s encounter with God in the cave on Mt. Horeb/Sinai a mystical “atunement”?
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What might it all mean, and where might it all lead?

Therefore I make known to you, that . . . no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:2, NASB

Amongst pan-evangelicals nowadays, there’s a lot of talk . . . talk . . . talk . . . going on about “Jesus,” the name that bespeaks the humanity of the historical person known by that name. The best selling religious allegory The Shack humanizes Jesus as a relatively unattractive Middle Eastern Jewish man with a “big nose” who functioned as the retreat center’s repairman. [1]

At face value, there is nothing wrong with portraying Jesus as human. In Jesus, God became incarnate. Paul the Apostle wrote, Jesus was “made in the likeness of men . . . [and] found in appearance as a man” (Philippians 2:7-8). Christians cannot deny—though Docetism, an ancient heresy in the early church, taught that His body was not real, that He only “seemed” (Greek, dokein) to have a body—Jesus possessed and possesses a genuine humanity. To counter the false teaching of Docetism, John the Apostle wrote that “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,” and that “many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh” (John 1:14; 2 John 7). For reason of His incarnation, no true Christian believer denies Jesus’ humanity. But with all this “Jesus-Jesus-Jesus” talk, believers ought to be concerned that a Christ-identity crisis is going on amongst professing evangelicals as they attempt to deconstruct the traditions surrounding Jesus in order to discover the authentic Jesus of the primitive gospel.
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Contemplative, or Listening Prayer and Psalm 46:10.

After reading Ephesians 1:15-23 (lectio divina, i.e. Latin for reading sacred things) at the Passion 2012 conference, and while standing on stage with the other keynote speakers beneath a giant screen reading Jesus, speak to me,
Beth Moore tells the audience:

Without any comment please, let’s pause and be still,
and ask Jesus to speak His word to us.

Held in Atlanta, GA, last January 1-3, at the Georgia Dome, and attended by over 42,000 college age youth, one can observe Lecrae (a converted rap and Hip Hop artist), Francis Chan, Louie Giglio and John Piper, along with thousands of youth, participating in the mystical practice of contemplative or “listening” prayer at Moore’s behest, and this despite the fact that Scripture provides no instruction or illustration for engaging in such a “spiritual” activity. [1]

“Be still, and know that I am God . . .” (Psalm 46:10). Those promoting contemplative or “listening” prayer refer to this Scripture as a biblical endorsement for pursuing this spiritual discipline. As a precondition for experiencing Soul-to-soul communication from God, contemplative Christians advocate cultivating quietude for the purpose of creating a spiritual tabula rasa (i.e., Latin for blank slate) in which personal communication from God can be received. Influential Christian leaders and spiritual directors encourage listening prayer (praying without words) as a means to experience “God’s guidance in everyday life.” At face value, Psalm 46 verse 10 appears to endorse this increasingly popular but ancient and mystical way to pray.
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Oh, and by the Way, from Jesus Too!

In his recent book A New Kind of Christian, emergent church leader Brian McLaren explains that there are two disparate story lines (we might call them story lineups) explaining Jesus.[1] The dominant narrative, the Greco-Roman, arose out of an Aristotelian-Platonic philosophical dualism that has dominated the AD era (That is, after Jesus lived and died), and explains Jesus from what is an ongoing Western perspective. Of the bent of the Greco-Roman philosophical mindset, McLaren explains that it

was habitually dualistic, in the sense that an enlightened or philosophical mind would always see the world divided in two, the profane physical world of matter, stuff, and change on the low side and the sacred metaphysical world of ideals, ideas, spirit, and changelessness on the high side.[2]

This Greco-Roman “story line” has dominated how western civilization and Christendom has understood Jesus for centuries, having molded His narrative according its perspective of reality (i.e., the cosmos and the universe). The recessive narrative, the Hebrew, arose out of the cultural milieu of the BC era (That is, before Jesus’ life), and explains Jesus in what was an emerging story that was Eastern in perspective.

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What would Jesus think (WWJT) about “the shift” to christ-consciousness?

Throughout this inter-advent age–the time between Jesus’ Incarnation and Second Coming, or Parousia–Jesus and John warned that false prophets would arise preaching the doctrine of replacement christs (Matthew 24:5, 23-24; 1 John 2:18). As Jesus’ coming draws nearer, and as pictured by the image of Messiah’s birth pangs, we can expect that oracular announcements of anti-christs by the false prophets will multiply and proliferate. Some of these false messiahs will even work deceptive “signs and wonders” (Mark 13:8, 21-22). During this age Jesus warned:

“Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not” (Matthew 24:23-26, KJV).
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A Study-Meditation on John 15:1-11.

Jesus told those who were and would become His future (That’s us!) learner-followers, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, NASB). Apart from Him, Jesus said we can do nothing, and that means “no” thing. In contrast to many contemplative-mystics who believe that they can self-engender “spirituality” by doing spiritual disciplines (Contra Galatians 3:3, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?“), abiding believers recognize that only in and by Christ can they produce anything of spiritual significance in their lives. That’s why Jesus admonishes His followers to abide or remain in Him, for it’s easy for our minds and hearts to be mystically “corrupted [i.e., distracted] from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). But what does it mean to abide?
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T.D. Jakes and Communion at "A Table Set for Two."

"Brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (Romans 16:17-18, KJV) 

In the Upper Room and to memorialize His upcoming death, the Lord Jesus took the common but symbolic elements of the bread and wine and instituted the ordinance that has come to be known as the Lord’s Table, the Eucharist, Communion, or simply, “the breaking of bread.” Luke records, “And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood’” (Luke 22:19-20). Of the rite established by the Lord to be observed by the church, Ralph P. Martin stated that susequently it became “a fruitful source of heresy and confused doctrine.” [1] Not only was this to be the case for developing Christendom, but it is also so among churches today.

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The Strange Case of Simon Magus

Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness”. Jesus, Matthew 7:22-23, NASB

Samaria was a religious ghetto that devout Jews tried to avoid (John 4:4). Half-breeds, part Jew and part Gentile, lived in the province north of Judah. Ostracized by the Jerusalem community, the Samaritans built their own worship center, and held as their sacred writings the first five Old Testament books known as the Torah. Yet, the risen Lord Jesus Christ announced that one day the Gospel would be preached in that province (Acts 1:8).

After persecution arose, persecution orchestrated by the as yet unconverted Apostle Paul, and forced the Christians to leave the comfort zone of Jerusalem, God used Philip, an ordained layman, to preach the gospel in Samaria. During Philip’s ministry in a Samaritan city, a “power encounter” occurred between the evangelist and a former practitioner of the occult arts named Simon the Great, who, in previous years, had duped Samaritans into believing that he possessed “the Great Power of God” (Acts 8:10). But the “great” met a greater. Simon’s feigned power paled in comparison to that of Philip who, in the power of God, performed extraordinary exorcisms and healings among the Samaritans. Simon was impressed–so much so that he, along with many others, apparently believed “the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 8:12). He was even “baptized” into Samaria’s First Baptist Church!
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Christian Maturity and Alcohol Consumption

"It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak." (Emphasis Mine, Romans 14:21, NASB)

Many in the pan-evangelical church possess a libertine attitude towards alcohol consumption. I have heard reports that pastors and their elder boards visit local pubs and drink together after administrative meetings. Lately, I’ve read where numbers of Christian liberal arts universities have lifted their ban on alcohol consumption for faculty and staff with the excuse that prohibition for drinking alcohol in moderation is "biblically indefensible." [1] In another instance upon visiting one blogger’s website, and as I scrolled down the section containing his Christian testimony, my eyes fell upon a picture of a large smoking stogie laying across an ashtray near a glass half-full of hard liquor. The picture’s message was, it seemed to me, that the blogger, a confessing Christian, saw nothing wrong with either smoking cigars or drinking liquor. Then of late, a movement has arisen among some emerging/emergent Christians called "pub theology." [2] Of course, Christians who might protest drinking alcoholic beverages are labeled with the dreaded "L" word, "Legalist!" But all of this, and more, raises the question, what should be a responsible Christian’s attitude toward alcohol consumption, should it be characterized by the other dreaded "L" word, "Libertine"?

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